Final Fantasy X-2
is a 2003 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation 2. Unlike most Final Fantasy games, which use self-contained stories and characters, X-2 continues the story of Final Fantasy X. The story follows Yuna as she searches for Tidus, the main character of the previous game, while trying to prevent political conflicts in Spira from escalating to war.
Final Fantasy X-2 was the first game in the series to feature just three player characters and an all-female main cast. The battle system incorporates Final Fantasy character classes—one of the series' signature gameplay concepts—and is one of the few entries to have multiple possible endings. The soundtrack was created by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi in lieu of long-time Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.
The game was positively received by critics and was commercially successful, selling over 5.4 million copies on PlayStation 2 and winning a number of awards. It was the last game to be released by Square before it merged with Enix in April 2003. The game was re-released in high-definition for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013, alongside Final Fantasy X, as Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster; this version was later released for the PlayStation 4 in 2015, Windows in 2016, and the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in 2019. As of September 2021, the Final Fantasy X series had sold over 20.8 million units worldwide, and at the end of March 2022 had surpassed 21.1 million units sold around the world.
Gameplay
Final Fantasy X-2 is a role-playing video game in which players take on the role of Yuna as she explores the fictional world of Spira. In contrast to its predecessor, Final Fantasy X, players may visit almost every location in Spira from an early point in the game via airship. The field-map navigation system is largely unchanged from Final Fantasy X; players navigate large, continuous three dimensional areas by controlling the on-screen character. A few upgrades have been implemented, providing the player with extended interaction with the environment through jumping, climbing, and rotating camera angles. The game's sidequests include minor tasks and quests, optional bosses and dungeons, and the most minigames of any Final Fantasy at the time of its release. These minigames include Gunner's Gauntlet and Sphere Break, and a management sim based on blitzball, the fictional underwater sport from Final Fantasy X.Unlike its predecessor, in which the player's course through the world was largely linear, Final Fantasy X-2 allows players to visit almost any location at any time. The game consists of five chapters, with each location featuring one scenario per chapter. Together, the five scenarios in one locale form a subplot of the game called an "Episode". Players are free to engage with as many or as few optional scenarios as they choose; only a few scenarios per chapter are required to advance the game's central plot and are marked on the world navigation system as "Hotspots". Both Hotspots and optional scenarios contribute to a story completion tracker and the latter may indirectly influence the main narrative. Achieving 100% completion unlocks a secret ending. When the game is finished, a New Game Plus option gives players the opportunity to replay the game with different choices, with all of the items and storyline completion percentage previously achieved intact, but all character levels are reset.
The combat in Final Fantasy X-2 uses an enhanced version of the Active Time Battle system, in which characters and enemies take actions according to their speed. This implementation of ATB allows characters to interrupt enemies while they are preparing to take an action. With precise timing, it is possible to chain attacks together for greater damage. Characters may change their character class mid-battle using dresspheres and the Garment Grid. These dresspheres, based on Final Fantasy character classes, allow access to different abilities to alter the course of battle. The Garment Grid is a placard featuring a geometric shape connected by nodes. Characters have access to dresspheres placed in the nodes. Depending on the properties of the Garment Grid, changing dresspheres in battle will grant bonuses such as increased strength or added elemental effects. Characters can learn new skills for each dressphere with the use of Ability Points. AP is earned by defeating enemies and by the use of items and abilities for that sphere.
Plot
Setting and characters
Final Fantasy X-2 takes place two years after Final Fantasy X and is set in the fictional world of Spira, which consists of one large landmass divided into three subcontinents, surrounded by small tropical islands. It features diverse climates, ranging from the tropical Besaid and Kilika islands, to the temperate Mi'ihen region, to the frigid Macalania and Mt. Gagazet areas. Spira is distinct from the mainly European-influenced worlds found in previous Final Fantasy games, being much more closely modeled on Southeast Asia, most notably with respect to vegetation, topography, architecture, and names. Although predominantly populated by humans, Spira features a variety of races. Among them are the Al Bhed, a technologically advanced but previously disenfranchised sub-group of humans with distinctive green eyes and unique language. The Guado are less human in appearance, with elongated fingers and other arboreal features. The lion-like Ronso and the frog-like Hypello comprise the remaining sentient races. The "unsent" are the strong-willed spirits of the dead that remain in corporeal form. In Spira, the dead who are not sent to the Farplane by a summoner come to envy the living and transform into "fiends", the monsters that are encountered throughout the game. Unsent with strong attachments to the world of the living may retain their human form.Aesthetically, the world of Spira is largely unchanged in the two years since Final Fantasy X and many locations return. There are, however, major changes in the ideology of Spira's people. Spira had been terrorized by a gargantuan monster called Sin for 1000 years, inhibiting technological advancement and trapping its people in a cycle of religious asceticism in hopes of praying Sin away. After Sin's destruction during the events of Final Fantasy X, an era of enlightenment known as "the Eternal Calm" began. Yuna, a main character of the previous game, is heralded as High Summoner for her pivotal role in this battle. The priests of the Yevon religion chose to expose the truth about the order's role in perpetuating the cycle, leaving the populace to decide for themselves how to live in a world without Sin. Advanced technology and the Al Bhed are embraced by the people, who have begun to pursue leisures such as attending musical concerts and participating in the sport of blitzball. Others have become hunters of ancient treasures, ranging from coins and machinery to arcane spheres in forgotten caves and ruins. These "sphere hunters" pursue the knowledge of ancient civilizations contained within.
In the absence of Yevon, various factions have formed. Young people were especially quick to abandon Yevon and embrace technology, while many of the older generation felt that cultural changes were happening too quickly. The most influential of the groups are the progressive Youth League led by Mevyn Nooj, the reformist New Yevon Party led by Praetor Baralai, and the Machine Faction led by Gippal which supplies weapons to both sides. By the start of the game, there are rising tensions between the Youth League and the New Yevon Party. Both groups have sought High Summoner Yuna's endorsement.
The three main playable characters of Final Fantasy X-2 are Yuna, Rikku, and Paine, members of the sphere hunter group called the Gullwings. Yuna was inspired to join after viewing a sphere recording that appeared to depict Tidus, her lost love who vanished during the ending of Final Fantasy X. Yuna and Rikku reprise their roles and, though their personalities are much the same as before, Square decided that their appearances would be heavily altered to give a greater impression of activity. Furthermore, it was decided that the pervading cultural changes occurring in Spira as they and others began trying to live positively would be reflected in the new clothing of these two characters. Paine is a new character designed for Final Fantasy X-2, to accommodate the game's intended action-adventure style revolving around a trio of female characters. Several characters from Final Fantasy X appear in the game in supporting roles, including Brother, Wakka, and Lulu. Additionally, other characters are introduced in Final Fantasy X-2, such as the faction leaders and the Leblanc Syndicate, a group of sphere hunters who serve as the Gullwings' rivals for much of the game. The game's main antagonist is Shuyin, the unsent spirit of a fallen soldier during the Machina War 1000 years ago.
Story
Two years after Sin's defeat, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine recover Yuna's stolen Garment Grid from the Leblanc Syndicate in the first of several encounters in which they vie for spheres. The game is punctuated by a narration of Yuna addressing Tidus, as though she is recounting the events of the game to him as they occur. Meanwhile, the Gullwings discover a sphere containing images of an ancient machina weapon called "Vegnagun" that was secretly buried beneath Bevelle. The weapon has enough power to threaten all of Spira. The Gullwings join forces with the Leblanc Syndicate to investigate the underground areas of the city in an attempt to destroy the machine before it can be used by either side in the upcoming conflict. Discovering a large tunnel recently dug into the floor of the weapon's chamber, they realize that Vegnagun has apparently moved to the Farplane, located deep below ground.Disagreements between Spira's factions are exacerbated by the disappearance of their leaders, Baralai, Nooj, and Gippal. In the underground areas of Bevelle, the Gullwings discover the missing faction leaders discussing Vegnagun and learn that the machine's artificial intelligence allows it to detect hostility and respond by fleeing. Paine had once been comrades with all three men during an operation in the "Den of Woe". Two years earlier, their squad explored the cave but a vengeful spirit drove them to kill one another. The four were the only survivors. The spirit—Shuyin, a soldier from the Machina War that led to the creation of Vegnagun—possessed Nooj and later forced him to shoot his comrades. Under Bevelle, Shuyin possesses Baralai and follows Vegnagun to the Farplane. Nooj and Gippal pursue, asking Yuna to keep things under control on the surface.
Yuna falls into the Farplane and meets Shuyin, who mistakes her for a woman named Lenne, whose memories are recorded in the Songstress dressphere. One thousand years ago, Shuyin was a famous blitzball player in the high-tech metropolis of Zanarkand and Lenne's lover. Desiring to save Lenne who had been conscripted into the Machina War between Zanarkand and Bevelle, he infiltrated Bevelle to hijack their secret weapon, Vegnagun. Lenne begged him to stop and Shuyin yielded, but a group of Bevelle soldiers arrived a moment later and executed the couple. In the present, Shuyin's spirit expresses anger that the people have still not understood the pain of war and plans to use Vegnagun to destroy all of Spira in retribution. The Gullwings organize a concert to which everyone in Spira is invited, supporters of the Youth League and New Yevon alike. The Songstress dressphere displays the scene of Shuyin and Lenne's last moments to all the concertgoers, opening their eyes to the unproductive nature of their disagreements.
Although the factional fighting had ceased, Shuyin's plan proceeds. Joining forces with the Leblanc Syndicate again, the Gullwings make their way to the Farplane and find Gippal and Nooj already battling Vegnagun. Once the group destroys Vegnagun, Yuna masquerades as Lenne to convince Shuyin to let go, but Shuyin eventually sees through her and attacks. The Gullwings defeat him and Lenne's spirit appears to soothe him as they depart together. By fulfilling certain conditions, the ancient spirits known as fayth agree to restore Tidus to life and reunite him with Yuna. Players who achieve 100% completion see an additional reunion scene in Zanarkand where the pair discuss whether he is truly real or still a dream.